Keeping Your Event Promotion Emails Interesting

In “Don’t Be Afraid to Engage Your Prospect Repeatedly” I wrote about the importance of engaging your list more frequently as your event approaches. In order to be really successful with your email event promotion you must combine frequency with a high level of interest.The best way to keep things interesting is to send the reader relevant information that’s compelling and in a style of writing that is easy to understand.

Open Rates Decrease when You Send More EmailOne trend that I notice with my own clients is that when you send more emails your email open rates go down. A 40%+ open rate was typical when sending promotional emails every few weeks for event clients. As the frequency of emails increase to every few days, in some cases once a day, the open rates on emails decreased to around 30%.How to Get Response and Email Open Rates to Go UpA simple way to getting both response and email open rates to go up is by keeping your information relevant and interesting to the reader. It was Joe Vitale that said “Get out of your ego and into their ego.” Give them what they really want! The best response rates were the emails that the client provided their target market exactly what they wanted. In the case of an air show client, it’s was schedule of the flying acts. For another client it was a map of where Brewfest attendees could fine their favorite breweries.Discovering Relevancy - What Are They Interested In?You can find out what your target market is looking for by asking them what’s important to them. Consider writing your target market an email asking “what do you want form this event?” or conducting a quick survey. People are most responsive when you ask them relevant and meaningful questions. In many cases your target market will automatically tell you what information they seek. Take a look at your email inbox. My air show client received countless emails requesting a schedule of flying acts. For years the client didn’t want to release the schedule to the general public. Fortunately a middle ground was found and the target market was elated when the schedule was released a few days before the event.

Write Using the Target Market’s LanguageWhen writing email try to write in your target market’s native language. Simple writing is the best writing style to use. Don’t try to use big stuffy words and write in simple sentences. Write so that the average reader doesn’t have to get a thesaurus to decode an email. Appealing to the target market’s emotions and desires is also of significant benefit. You want your readers to think “this person gets me.” If you can achieve that connection, you’re response rates and open rates are going to go up.

Tell a StoryIf you can craft your emails into a story your target market will take notice. Why would you want to tell a story to your target market? Because people love to hear interesting stories that are meaningful to them.

Hopefully the information above gives you some ideas for better connecting with your target market via email. You can’t afford to send boring emails to your target market before your event. If you make them anticipate your next email, you can't go wrong.